Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Menu

✕

CONNECT

Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites

BLOG

Success Stories

APPS

TOOLS

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

ABOUT

About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#125: Better Late Than Never

Everybody has that one person in their life who’s perpetually late. For those unfortunate souls, time is never quite on their side, no matter how hard they try.

Whether your characters are rushing to make it, or deliberately taking it slow, this week’s prompts are an ode to the latecomers among us, and to those who don’t give up, even when time is running out.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character who is always running late arriving somewhere just as it closes.

Thriller and Suspense – 19 stories

Write a story about a late bloomer.

Spring – 12 stories

All clocks suddenly stop. Write about what happens next.

Science Fiction – 45 stories

Write a story including the phrase “Better late than never”.

Angst – 67 stories

Set your story in an airport, as someone rushes for a flight.

Thriller and Suspense – 21 stories

Stories

“Impatience” by Rich Hosek

Submitted to Contest #125

Jericho Maxwell Orelio, Ph.D., stood at his workbench conducting the final inspection of the array equipment that was carefully mounted, positioned and connected to myriad sensors. At first glance, it appeared to be something a child might assemble out of the odds and ends one might find in the dumpster behind an electronics repair shop. But a closer look would reveal a miniature version of a device that one would find among the experiments positioned in the targeting area of a particle accelerator.“Vivian, are we still a go on the temporal ...

Read story

“Lesson Learned” by Naina P

Submitted to Contest #125

This story will not teach you the lesson you expect, nor the one I believe you’ve come here to learn. For that, I cannot say I apologize and I hope you’ll understand why once you’ve made your way through this mess. I will say this: I believe you are in the right place and should take the time to listen rather than rushing off to wherever you were headed prior to finding yourself here, with me, in this cold place we cannot name and perhaps does not exist. I can’t explain who I am, but it really isn’t important because I will tell you who I am...

Read story

“To The Gate” by Yael Pinto

Submitted to Contest #125

Dex Slater woke up red-eyed and utterly confused on Tuesday afternoon. He was barely dressed in what could only be described as rags and wore ripped shoes that revealed his filthy, unclipped, toes. He had not the slightest idea where he had just woken up. He only realized where he was when a well-dressed employee wearing a striped red and blue tie tapped him on the shoulder to wake him up."Excuse me, sir, you’re not allowed to sleep here"- he said."Uh-yeah. My bad." - groaned, Slater.The employee rolled his eyes and stomped away w...

Read story

“Last seat tonight” by Lex Castanheira

Submitted to Contest #125

The airport security guard punched a random page in a small notebook and handed it back to me, while pointing to the next person in line. I grabbed my bag on wheels and as I started walking towards the gates, tens of people started accelerating the pace. It was like all of a sudden they were all part of a race walking olympic finals. As we turned around the corner, everyone started running frantically. A small man in a suit and oxford dress shoes, tripped on his suitcase and fell on the ground. I quickly crossed the crazy herd of people and ...

Read story

“Breathe Easy” by John Spangenberger

Submitted to Contest #125

Days, weeks, months later—who can say?—the old grump would dodder back to her leaky cottage, face twisted into the familiar rictus of a scowl. The hinges bleated out a welcome-home screech as she opened the door, gouging the stress lines deeper still into her weathered skin. Sam, her grumpy and ungrateful mutt, deigned to snuffle out a perfunctory grunt in acknowledgment as she entered the cottage—more than could be said of her grumpy husband, who acknowledged her not at all. In six familiar strides, the old grump traversed the extent of t...

Read story

“Flight 152” by Lucy W

Submitted to Contest #125

A yellow taxi screeched up to the snowy entrance of Denver International Airport. Out of the cab, fell a petite girl wearing bell bottom jeans, a University of Colorado sweatshirt, and a bright cherry red puffer jacket that was just the slightest bit too big for her. Long jet black curls tumbled over her shoulders as she gathered her bags and scrambled out of the cab, throwing the driver a $50 bill and yelling “keep the change”, before racing towards the airport’s automatic doors. For someone with such small limbs she moved astonishingly q...

Read story

“On the cutting edge of time” by Nemira Nedelcu

Submitted to Contest #125

“There are many reasons someone can be late early in the morning: your alarm clock turned against you and died in the middle of the night. Or it was effective as always, but you stayed up until 4 am, watching horror movies, and when the moment to get your ass out of the bed came, you knocked the alarm clock against the wall. Or even worse, you did this to your expensive phone. Chances are you are late because your love interest kept you hot and time became an abstract notion for both of you. Love can mess with our brains. Right now, I am try...

Read story

“A Lingering Light” by Celeste Noble

Submitted to Contest #125

Genevieve Floyd raced through the streets; her small yellow umbrella barely keeping up with her fast pace. The sun seemed to mock her as it hung low, casting the sky in a soft orange glow; reminding her of how late the time was. She looked down at her watch; it was ten to four and she still had a bit to go. She sucked in a breath as she increased her speed, desperate to get to her destination in time. She grimaced as she tried to dodge a couple walking towards her, resulting in her foot making contact with a particularly muddy puddle. Her ...

Read story

“A Day in (mentally) Handicapped Dating” by M.E. Gerthen

Submitted to Contest #125

A Day in (mentally) Handicapped Dating A proven, certified guide I sigh in relief at the sight of the white apple logo on my phone screen. It finally has some battery life! It’s been plugged into the portable charger I’d grabbed in the 20 seconds I had stopped by home. PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE STILL THERE, I frantically text. Just then, my Uber stops. “We’re here. 5 stars please, Morgan!” my driver says. “Yes of course, thank you,” I say as I stumble out of the Uber. I immediately trip on the curb while rushing to the restaurant ent...

Read story

“Grand Canyon: Rim to Rim Hike” by Leotie Review

Submitted to Contest #125

There’s a great deal of walking, almost without purpose, in the Bible, as though the function of the trek itself is a journey to bear witness to the beating heart of God. I’m not sure what it means, but it stirs my wonder. Albert Einstein advocated for ‘aimless’ walking as a means to regenerate the mind. He walked a mile and a half to and from work. Not because he had no means of transportation, but because he wanted to. The act to him was considered a sacred ritual. To others, it was another aspect to his strange quirkiness. It took m...

Read story

“When Time Stands Still” by Lisa Neuvelt

Submitted to Contest #125

When Time Stands Still “What time is it?” Kossiwa asked. “It’s 1:15.” Lisa said as she closed the trunk of her car with the load of books that her friend Kossiwa just bought. They climbed into Lisa’s car and started driving. “What time is it?” Kossiwa asked. “Ten minutes after the last time you asked.” Lisa answered, without even looking at the clock in her car. “Good, we’ll make it back in time for my three o’clock shift.” Kossiwa said. They were returning back from a trip to the vintage bookstore. Both of them loved to ...

Read story

“Towards the Sun” by Eva Leticia Brito

Submitted to Contest #125

Dedicated to MarthitaIt was near dawn when Fayna arrived at her house. The door was wide open and she was afraid she was the victim of a robbery. She carefully removed her white loafers and crept inside. The porch light that she used to leave on when she returned at night allowed her to see inside and enter with more confidence. She realized that everything was in order and that nothing was missing. The young woman only noticed something strange: there was too much silence, she did not hear the clock in the room and she realized that it stop...

Read story

“Unanimously Different ” by Agnes Goldfinch

Submitted to Contest #125

I wish I could tell you everybody took it the same way. It would certainly make for a neater story, but, unfortunately, it wouldn’t be true, not in the slightest. See, as much as we would sometimes prefer to deny it, each and every single one of us is different, and to pretend that the humankind’s reaction to all the world’s clocks having stopped out of the blue was in any way organized, or even unanimous, would be as artificial an invention as the idea of letting one’s life be ruled by clocks in itself was. No, in reality, it was much ...

Read story

“A Passing Moment Before Death Comes” by Rebecca P L

Submitted to Contest #125

Her kind eyes met mine so lovingly, colored the same kind of blue I usually only saw in the mirror. For a moment, it was as though the clocks had stopped and we had all the time in the world. It’s like when I was little, and she’d let me win our board games by giving me tips on what to do. We’d laugh then, and I would beg her to play just one more round and she would indulge me, despite it being the fourth time that day and she really ought to have got started on dinner. I won again, and was promptly crowned champion supreme over a q...

Read story

“The Fallen” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #125

“We could make our millions,” sighed Luigi Vampa, and not for the first time, as he adjusted the pendulum of the Bulova C3383 so that it hung perfectly straight. It was a service which, before the great happening, the wizened man had never been called upon to perform and he was taking an obscure pleasure in the meticulousness of it. If tiny detail and exact precision had not delighted Luigi he would have been a miserable and probably very inexpert clocksmith, perhaps no clocksmith at all, perhaps he would have donned some other gui...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

164

Contest entries

113

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 24, 2021 EST

Won by Shuvayon Mukherjee 🏆

Title: The Heart Specialist

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢